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About This Quiz
How aggravating is it to go to the gas pump and spend upwards of $3 a gallon for fuel when just a few decades ago you could pull up and fill your tank for less than $7? Aside from that, what has happened to the full-service lane at the pumps? Long gone are the days that an attendant checked your oil and kicked your tires. The world has slowly slipped away from being a culture of people caring about other people and affordable gasoline. It's not uncommon to become melancholy thinking of the times long gone.
If you think back to the cars of 1966, there were some pretty bold styles along with some pretty famous duds. What did you need out of a vehicle, though? Were you trying to look more hip than anyone else at the malt shop, or were you trying to haul feed to your chickens? The more things change, the more they stay the same. People's choice of transportation is often one of those things.
Take a moment and place yourself in a driver's seat in 1966. Breathe in the surroundings, including the vinyl seats and leaded gas. What were you doing? Where were you going, and what were you listening to on the radio? Take this quiz and find out if we can guess what you were driving. The results might be startling accurate!
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Reminiscing on your travels, on what road would you most likely be found?
The Pacific Coast Highway, searching from some tasty waves
County Road 400 in Indiana, heading to the grain store
Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, heading for Wrigleyville
The Pennsylvania Turnpike, heading to a football game
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If you were to take your car to the local race track back in the day, how would it handle?
Supremely agile and curve-hugging
Slightly sluggish, but comfortable cruising
Abundant body roll and no steering control
Slow and steady wins the race, right?
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If you think back and remember a straight stretch of road and opened the throttle a bit, what would be your maximum comfortable speed?
70 miles per hour — Anything faster might have compromised the sweet wood paneling on the side.
80 miles per hour, depending on what you had riding in the back
The speedometer had been broken since it was new, so, who knows!
There wasn't top speed. The road always ended before it was achieved.
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When you weren't cruising town in your sweet ride, what were you watching on your brand new color television set?
"Days of our Lives" (But don't tell anyone.)
The one and the only color episode of "Perry Mason"
The Rolling Stones on "The Ed Sullivan Show"
"The Andy Griffith Show"
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In your youth, what job were you most likely working to save up for a new car?
Certified Public Accountant
You were in a band and you lived in your parents' basement.
Running a family owned hardware store
An architect or engineer
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How much did you expect to pay to get a full tank of gas?
$6.72
$4.48
$6.40
Never a full tank, only $2 at a time
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Think back to when you chose your car. You probably put a lot of thought into what engine would best serve your needs. What did you choose?
An L79 V8 engine producing at least 350 horsepower
A reliable naturally aspirated in-line six-cylinder
A 318 V8 with a three-speed manual transmission
A 352 "Special" Cruise-O-Matic V8
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Car lots were pretty psychedelic back in the day! How groovy were you willing to go with your color choice?
Metallic Red was the grooviest color in the world.
There was no need to call extra attention to a vehicle; white was groovy enough.
You got out the DayGlo paint and went wild! The factory paint was so square.
It didn't get any groovier than a nice avocado green with wood paneling.
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What was the maximum number of people you felt you needed to transport to the local drive-in theater(not necessarily safely)?
Two maximum, not a single person more
Three, but up to eight if they rode in the back
Countless! You lost count once people start sitting on each other's laps.
Ten, all sitting comfortably on bench seats
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Even though the price of fuel was reasonable back then, fuel efficiency wasn't really a thing. What sort of miles per gallon did you expect to get?
Pretty darn close to 20 miles to the gallon at a sporty pace
Around 16 miles per gallon or so, depending on the load
It changed daily. You got maybe 14 miles per gallon going downhill.
When you accelerated, you watched the fuel needle plummet.
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When you hopped into your vehicle and sat in the driver's seat, what did you expect to be sitting on?
Beautiful red leather with accent stitching
What looked to be artificial leather
A combination of cloth and vinyl
Vinyl but with a blanket thrown over it
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Everyone was participating in renegade activities back then. What was the edgiest thing you remember doing?
Attending an Andy Warhol exhibit in New York while wearing a florescent wig
Watching "The Ed Sullivan Show" with the curtains drawn tightly so the neighbors didn't see
Peacefully protesting at an iconic sit-in at the square in Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco
Burning records by the Beatles at the fairgrounds to send a message to the restless youth
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If you were to compare the length of your car to a non-car object, what would it equate to?
An incredibly robust and well-fed king cobra snake
About the size of a strong adult male great white shark
Around the size of an adolescent saltwater crocodile
The size of a healthy adult hippopotamus
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In the glory days of automobile manufacturing, it was incredibly important where your vehicle was built. Where would you choose?
Dearborn, Michigan, because it was the birthplace of all that is good and right in the automotive world
Anywhere in Ohio because they were hard-working honest people who knew how to build a solid vehicle
Warren, Michigan, which was far enough away from Detroit to be out of the commotion, but it was still part of Detroit.
St. Louis, Missouri, with water from the Mississippi River pumping through the vehicle's cooling system.
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Automobiles have always been blank slates eager to be personalized by their owners. Do you remember the first customization you did to your car?
Cut a large hole in the side, added a moon-shaped port window and maybe some shag carpet
Added a decent set of all-weather tires and a personalized plate with your name on it, possibly airbrushed
Varnished the wood and added an advanced roof rack system for cargo or ill-behaved children
Upgraded the side exhaust, and added lambskin seat covers to keep your butt from getting burned on hot days
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Before the wild, scary age of the internet, people got their information from magazines and newspapers. What would be the subtitle under the picture of your car on the cover of Motor Trend?
Style and speed
Practicality and affordability
Creepiness and comfort
All of the above
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If you pulled up to a malt shop and ordered onion rings and a strawberry shake back then, what would the carhops' reaction be?
She would smile and hand you your drink with extra napkins, all the while nodding towards the tip jar with a fake smile.
She would hand you your food along with handfuls of salt and ketchup, prepared for something to be wrong.
She would be grumpy at first, but after she saw your sweet golden retriever waiting patiently for their treat, she'd smile.
She would applaud the fact you were able to navigate such a ship into the narrow parking space and give you two thumbs up.
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All the best cars have had epic names, like Eleanor and Herbie. What did you decide to name your car?
Cruisin' Susan
"What", the Truck
Van-essa
Gorgon the Giant
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Wheels have always been able to make or break a car's overall appearance. What wheels did you choose for your vehicle?
Torq-thrust
Smooth Steelies
Black Monocast
Factory wheels with tacky plastic covers
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Think back to the days of cruising the streets without a care in the world. What vehicle did you meet at a stoplight and want to race?
A first-generation Ford Mustang
A Volkswagen Westfalia
A Chevrolet Impala
A very rare Corvair pickup
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We like big bumpers, and we cannot lie! How did you feel about some of the oversized bumpers of the time?
A protruding front bumper detracted from the overall styling and added weight. No, thanks.
A tiny one — really minuscule — was nice, just in case of an incredibly low-speed impact!
Styling was everything, so opting for a bumper tucked beneath the longest reach of the hood was paramount!
Skipping the bumper and using a strictly aesthetic bent piece of metal instead made more sense.
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What were you concerned about the most if you got into a collision on the way to the "five and dime"?
The stuff randomly placed in the cargo area, including a few random hippies
The fact that you were sitting directly on top of the steering wheel and it could have impaled you.
Crash? There's no way you could have possibly crashed. You drove too conservatively.
You could have gotten ejected or cut in half, but you never worried about it. The adventure was more important.
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Life was full of random activities and fun events back then! What were you most likely to be participating in with your vehicle?
A homecoming parade with the homecoming queen riding shotgun
As a pace van in the yearly Van Nationals event in rural Indiana
A funeral procession for a local shop owner who was grouchy and had no real friends
A Christmas parade with a Santa Claus perched on the roof of the car
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The census maps have drastically changed over the years, and what used to be a cornfield is now a Fleet Farm. Where did you live before urban sprawl set in?
An inland paradise called Twentynine Palms, California
Concord, a lovely suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina
A rural community called Fryeburg, Maine
Colfax, Virginia. As if there's anywhere else in the world to live!
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How much did you plan on spending on your new car?
Not a penny more than $2,200, purchased from your buddy Bob at the local dealership
$5,308.90 and not a cent more! You worked hard to earn a nice car, but you're no a sap.
The details got a little fuzzy around payment time, anywhere between $1,800 and $3,000.
After the third refinance, somewhere around $5,000, including taxes and fees.
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The cinema was huge in the late '60s, with all varieties of movies being introduced to the public. If a film was made about your car, what would it have been titled?
"The Summer of Misplaced Shoes"
"The Summer of Shorts Too Short"
"The Summer of Attainable Wants and Goals"
"The Summer of Secret Stalking"
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Although you loved your vehicle and chose it as the perfect mode of transportation for you, what is one thing you remember wishing had been different about it?
You wished that people didn't touch the paint.
You wished there was a bigger fuel tank.
You remember wishing people didn't protect their children when you drove by.
You wished you could squeeze an extra person in the back seat.
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Vehicles weren't just a medium for you to look cool in. They were also practical to haul stuff. What do you remember transporting the most in your vehicle?
Two surfboards, one sleeping bag, a cooler and a large dog named Jack
A couple of bales of hay and a sack of modestly priced chicken scratch in an asbestos bag
A designer overnight bag and a passenger who talked incessantly about "Star Trek."
Three kids and seven sacks of groceries in paper sacks that would break the second you tried to pick them up
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Thefts weren't near as frequent back then as they are nowadays. What adjective would you give to the police to assist them in finding your stolen car?
Groovy
Tight
Foxy
Choice
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Science fiction movies and television programs were really picking up steam back then, and time travel was a common theme. If you were to time travel, what year would you travel to and what vehicle would you select?
1977 Dodge Tradesman B200
1978 Subaru Brat with extra seats in the bed
Early 1990s Buick Roadmaster (with wood)
1963 Split Window Corvette
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You Got: